1826.] New Plan of Cod>fioation. 3i)5 



brought to light whenever the court is called upon for its decision— is not a law 

 so unknown the same as a law not in existence? Is not the declaring that law 

 substantially, to enact it ? Are not the judges, though called only expounders 

 of the law, in reality legislators? But we are told that the law is legally/ sup- 

 posed to have had pre-existence; but will this legal fiction, enable men to con- 

 form to an unknown law as the rule of their conduct ? Thus, by what are clearly 

 ex post facto enactments, persons are subjected to the penalties of having disre- 

 garded prohibitions which had no existence — Is this justice ? — It is common law ! 



In consequence of this great uncertainty of our common law, and of the 

 confusion and unintelligibilit y of the statutes, the study of the law has become one 

 of the most profound to which the human mind can apply itself — So profound, 

 indeed, that no man exists who can claim a thorough knowledge of the statute 

 law which is at present in force, and of all that body of the common law from 

 which the veil of antiquity has been removed. In the profession of the law no 

 man lays claim to such complete knowledge. One is distinguished as deeply 

 learned in the law of real property; another in what relates to tythes and the 

 rights of the church ; a third is famed for his practice in the courts of common 

 law ; a fourth for his knowledge of the principles of the courts of equity ; a 

 fifth for criminal law ; and a sixth is skilled in the forms of actions and rules of 

 procedure ; but no man professes fully to understand the whole of that law by 

 which his life and his property are governed, and which every individual in the 

 realm is bound to know at his own peril. If the law be so difficult of comprehension 

 that none even of those whose lives have been wholly devoted to its study, can 

 be fully masters of it, what impositions, losses, and disappointments must indi- 

 viduals, not members of that learned profession, experience from their ignorance 

 of those laws which were framed for the governance of all. 



,In most other departments of a man's affairs, he knows whether his business 

 be well or ill conducted; he knows whether his accountant or his steward con- 

 sults his interest, because he knows something of accounts and the management 

 of an estate; but he neither does nor can understand any thing of English law; 

 he, consequently, is wholly at the mercy of the lawyer, and in proportion to 

 the confidence he places in him, is generally a disappointed loser. 



Another necessary effect of this doubt and uncertainty in our law is, the 

 increase of litigation ; for those who are generally learned in the law, with the 

 intention too of using their knowledge for the benefit of their clients, find, not 

 unfrequently, after much expense incurred, and time lost, that the law upon a 

 given point is not as they really conceived it to be ; while, at the same time, 

 those members of the profession who are mildly designated by the term disre- 

 putable, find, to their fullest satisfaction, ample means of sustaining that cha- 

 racter which they have over earned. Thus each, in a different way, misleads 

 his client under cover of the mystery of our laws. 



These are a few of the disadvantages arising from the state of our laws, 

 particularly, we conceive, from the venerable system of common law, which, as 

 lawyers tell us, is the perfection of human reason ! In an enlightened age, in 

 an intellectual age, we think some attention should be paid to this mo»t 

 important subject, to the bringing to light, purifying, and arranging those laws 

 v^hich govern, as it is said, the first people of the world. Let this stigma no 

 longer remain upon the country; let no more bungling disgrace the age — let 

 proper advantage be taken of that spirit for improvement which has aiisen, and 

 the whole of our laws undergo a revision. Retaining the "grains of which," 

 let us commit the " bushel of chaff" to the gale : digest the common law and 

 unite the same with the consolidated statute law— so forming a whole, having 

 but 07ie law. 



This is the great secret, which, however unpalatable to some, must, we are 

 convinced, very soon occupy the attention of Parliament, The country must 

 be governed by one explicit and comprehensible law. 



And here we are bound to take notice of an individual whose labours have 

 entitled him, not only to the attention, but to the acknowledgments of his 

 country. Without wishing to deduct from the equal fame of Mr, Bentham, or 

 from the reputation of the other persons w ho have proposed the broad princi- 



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